Was Madoff just the tip of the iceberg?
The SEC is investigating at least one case in which investors may have been cheated out of as much as $1 billion, by money managers using tactics similar to those alleged to have been employed by Madoff, Bloomberg reports, based on anonymous sources “with knowledge of the inquiries.”
It adds:
Regulators may discover additional Ponzi arrangements as declining stock markets prompt investors to withdraw their cash and they question how their money is being managed. This week, the SEC said it halted what the agency described as a $23 million scam targeting Haitian-Americans, and said the Florida- based operators had tried as recently as last month to bring in more investors.
And it throws in an additional nugget of news stemming from Madoff’s providing a list of his assets to the SEC on Wednesday:
A catalog of Madoff’s assets provided by his attorneys to the SEC on Dec. 31 hasn’t revealed any major sources of additional cash, a person familiar with the matter said.